Madrid Open: Confident Sakkari makes quarter-finals, beats Badosa in straight sets

Greek Maria Sakkari, the No 9 seed, beat Spaniard Paula Badosa, the No 26 seed, 6-4, 6-4 to move into the quarter-finals of the Madrid Open at the Caja Magica on Monday.

Sakkari, ranked No 9, will play Romanian Irina-Camelia Begu, the No 31 seed, next.

In the previous rounds of the Madrid tournament, the Greek won against Dutch qualifier Arantxa Rus (6-4, 6-4) and Spanish wildcard Rebeka Masarova (3-6, 6-3, 6-3).

With a few slightly shaky performances under her belt, Sakkari needed to step up to a bigger challenge against the Spanish favourite, and did so, serving confidently and finishing the match in less than an hour and a half.

“I’m very happy with the way I kept my focus, kept calm, didn’t hear anything from the outside,” said Sakkari afterwards, who also mentioned that she had spent four years of her life training in Spain, which gave her added motivation to win in Madrid.

Badosa, ranked No 42, edged out Italian Elisabetta Cocciaretto (6-3, 4-6, 6-4) and won against American Coco Gauff, the No 6 seed (6-3, 6-0) earlier in the tournament.

Madrid WTA 1000, other results (Caja Magica, clay, USD 7.652.174, most recent results first):

• Iga Swiatek vs. Ekaterina Alexandrova
• Jessica Pegula vs. Martina Trevisan
• Barbora Krejcikova vs. Petra Martic
• Veronika Kudermetova vs. Daria Kasatkina: monday
• Aryna Sabalenka (2) beat Mirra Andreeva (WC): 6-3, 6-1
• Mayar Sherif beat Elise Mertens (24): 6-4, 0-6, 6-4
• Irina-Camelia Begu beat Liudmila Samsonova (14): 6-4, 6-4